If everything goes to plan we will be able to explore the expansion
CHRIS Pearlman believes Swansea City have taken important steps off the field as he marks a year at the Liberty Stadium, but has his sights on bigger and better things.
The American joined the Premier League club on October 27, 2016, as chief operating officer and could scarcely have chosen a more difficult time to move to SA1.
But he has won plenty of plaudits for his work over the last 12 months, helping to forge more productive working relations between the club’s American owners and the Swansea City Supporters’ Trust.
Additionally he has overseen commercial growth, including the signing of the Swans first shirt sleeve sponsorship deal and the opening of a club store in Swansea city centre.
He continues to negotiate a deal for Swansea City to take over the lease of their Liberty Stadium home, which it is hoped will pave the way for the long-mooted ground expansion.
“I’m very happy with things so far,” said the New Yorker, who spent 10 years as executive vice president of sports business group Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment before making the switch to South Wales.
“There have certainly been ups and downs on the pitch but, from my perspective and the perspective of our brand as a club, I feel we have made some strides.
“We can go through it group by group. Our media team are producing eight new pieces of bespoke content a day, great video and stories from behind the scenes for our fans which I think is wonderful.
“The new app and website have been a really big step forward. We are able to stream our press conferences and Under-23 games, which is big. From a marketing perspective I think our look is a lot more contemporary, we are growing our social media channels with 844,000 followers on Twitter.
“On the merchandising front the new store in the city centre speaks for itself, the third kit sales have exceeded all expectations and our kit sales are rising year on year.
“In terms of partnerships we have a better sponsorship deal with Letou, we have Barracuda Networks onboard as our first shirt sleeve sponsor.
“Our revenues from those sorts of things are up 35 per cent year to year, so we are happy about that.”
While negotiations over the stadium lease have proved to be protracted, Swansea, the council and the Ospreys remain hopeful a deal can be completed.
And Pearlman confirmed there is still a strong desire to carry through on the expansion of the capacity of the Liberty Stadium, something that has been touted since shortly after promotion to the Premier League was achieved in 2011.
“The situation about the stadium lease is ongoing with discussions moving along in a good direction,” added Pearlman.
“Ticket sales have remained strong thanks to our fans, we have made some upgrades to our hospitality packages too.
“If everything goes to plan we will be able to explore the expansion plan, which is important for us.
“So if you look at the bigger picture of where we are commercially, our relationships are stronger so for all these reasons I am happy.
“But you always want more and there is tons of room for growth.
“Obviously, I understand that when we have some tough weeks on the field and when the club is not winning that will not matter to supporters.
“They focus, quite rightly, on the performance of the team. When the team is not performing as well as everyone hopes then this stuff does not matter.
“But the bigger picture on the commercial side is positive, we have local partners like Peter Lynn & Partners and Low Cost Vans, which is something I was very keen on.
“Having said that, we want to do better and do more and make the club better.”